buyer says not received tracking says collected

claire07

I sell a few surplus specialist plants first class Royal Mail and have had a buyer said he has not received the one sent on 9 April. When I enter the Royal Mail track and trace number it says delivery attempted but no answer on 11 April and collected from a Royal Mail site 10.23 am on 12 April.


After searching previous threads I would appreciate confirmation of the best way to respond to this. I presume I will have to contact Royal Mail and ebay but how should I reply to the buyer initially?

pinkshoes

claire07 wrote: »

I sell a few surplus specialist plants first class Royal Mail and have had a buyer said he has not received the one sent on 9 April. When I enter the Royal Mail track and trace number it says delivery attempted but no answer on 11 April and collected from a Royal Mail site 10.23 am on 12 April.


After searching previous threads I would appreciate confirmation of the best way to respond to this. I presume I will have to contact Royal Mail and ebay but how should I reply to the buyer initially?

I would reply to the buyer stating the tracking indicates it has been collected, so if they didn't collect it they should check with their local sorting office.

You will win any dispute as your tracking states collected.

I would also look at buyer's feedback. Any indication they are a little dishonest?

soolin

As above, if collected the person collecting would have needed ID so a gentle suggestion that someone must have collected it for them with their ID so perhaps they could check if a family member with access to their ID did that for them is the way to start. You will win any INR claim, but it is still always best to try and assist the buyer.

However, always protect your account first and formost, if buyer rings any alarms or gets nasty push them towards opening a claim for INR.Then provide proof of collection/delivery to win the claim and that prevents the buyer leaving feedback, and then help them further.

theonlywayisup

claire07 wrote: »

I sell a few surplus specialist plants first class Royal Mail and have had a buyer said he has not received the one sent on 9 April. When I enter the Royal Mail track and trace number it says delivery attempted but no answer on 11 April and collected from a Royal Mail site 10.23 am on 12 April.


After searching previous threads I would appreciate confirmation of the best way to respond to this. I presume I will have to contact Royal Mail and ebay but how should I reply to the buyer initially?

As per the two previous replies.

Perhaps along the lines of ....

Dear x,

I am very sorry to hear your item hasn't arrived. I have checked our Royal Mail delivery info and it says delivery was attempted on x date and the parcel was collected from the x on x date.

If you would be kind enough to confirm your delivery address just to ensure we have things correct our end that would be great.

I can then dispute the collection with Royal Mail. I look forward to hearing back.

Kind regards claire07

I find these none-accusatory emails tend to allow the buyer to say "oops my wife collected" etc, without losing face. Those that are genuine can supply the address and you can then dispute the delivery with RM as normal. But, you are safe in the knowledge your ebay account is protected.

barmonkey

soolin wrote: »

As above, if collected the person collecting would have needed ID so a gentle suggestion that someone must have collected it for them with their ID so perhaps they could check if a family member with access to their ID did that for them is the way to start.

I have never needed any form of ID to collect a standard delivery parcel, only signed for ones.

soolin

barmonkey wrote: »

I have never needed any form of ID to collect a standard delivery parcel, only signed for ones.

Hopefully your mail centre is the only one that breaches the rules otherwise this is a scammer paradise and we need to start warning people not to use RM

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/146/~/what-is-a-something-for-you-red-card%3F

What ID do I need to collect my item?
To keep your mail as secure as possible, we'll need to see proof of ID before handing any item over.

Please make sure you bring:

The Something for you card. Without this you can’t collect your item.

You’ll also need one of the following items:

Credit or debit card
Bank or building society cheque/savings book
Valid passport
Driving licence
NHS medical card
Photo ID card (foreign national, military, police warrant, Royal Mail employee, NHS or senior citizen bus pass)

If you're collecting mail for someone else, please bring the Something for you card and one of the above forms of ID, in the name of the person the item is addressed to.

If you can’t bring any of the above ID in the name of the person the item is addressed to, you can still collect. This also applies if you are collecting an item addressed to a child.

You’ll need to bring:

The Something for you card
Your photo ID (passport, driving licence, foreign national, military, police warrant, Royal Mail employee, NHS or senior citizen bus pass)
Proof you live at the address on the Something for you card (bank statement, driving licence, TV licence, utility bill or home insurance certificate)

Please note: we can only accept only original, recent documents.

soolin

barmonkey wrote: »

I have never needed any form of ID to collect a standard delivery parcel, only signed for ones.

Sorry for two responses, I am struggling with error issues on MSE today.

If your mail centre is so blatantly breaking the rules you should seriously consider making a formal complaint. This could seriously back fire on you if anyone at all can collect your post with no card and no proof of ID as that means anything too big for your letter box will basically be at the mercy of anyone at all collecting it and meaning you can't win an INR.

RFW

I recently had a parcel that was signed as collected (it wasn't RM, but no reason it couldn't happen with them). I had no idea it had gone to the wrong place until I was contacted by the person who had collected it. He was collecting one parcel and they accidentally gave him two, no similarities on address or name, the boxes must have been next to each other.
Thankfully the box was dropped off at the right place but no thanks to the courier.

Anyway just a point that it's always possible that a buyer is telling the truth and in such cases I always assume that the buyer is truthful until I have reason to believe otherwise.

claire07

Many thanks for the replies. I have sent a message along the lines suggested and hope this may resolve things.


The buyer's feedback seems OK so I hope this may just have been an oversight on their part.

khimg

I came home after work to find a set of golf clubs that I had bought online left outside my front door. I checked the PARCELFORCE tracking details and found it had been signed for using my first name only. The driver used my first name from the lable and signed it himself and left the box outside my front door. Anyone could have walked off with it. I phoned Parcelforce and they said they would investigate. I told them forging signature is a criminal offence and if they don't give me a satisfactory reason I will contact the police.
Has anyone else had this? How common is this?

kangoora

khimg wrote: »

I came home after work to find a set of golf clubs that I had bought online left outside my front door. I checked the PARCELFORCE tracking details and found it had been signed for using my first name only. The driver used my first name from the lable and signed it himself and left the box outside my front door. Anyone could have walked off with it. I phoned Parcelforce and they said they would investigate. I told them forging signature is a criminal offence and if they don't give me a satisfactory reason I will contact the police.
Has anyone else had this? How common is this?

I had a My Hermes driver once who did exactly the same, signed for receipt using buyers first name only. Buyer was going potty and actually did all the chasing for me - by the time I'd got his message and started to look up a contact number he'd already done that and had them committed to a re-delivery. I did put it down to the bad snow we had - I assumed the delivery driver just couldn't make all his rounds and wasn't expecting my buyer to be watching the tracking like a hawk